The rich men who send us to war

In the US, France and Britain, extremely rich, middle-aged and elderly men, in classically-cut, expensive suits, keep telling the ‘ordinary folk’ that we must attack Syria to punish the Al Assad regime for crimes against humanity.

The Americans, in their rush to aid the so-called rebel forces in Syria, are prepared to arm the very organisations they accused of flying aircraft into the twin towers and Pentagon.

When US president, Barack Obama, Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, Joe Biden and William Hague, et al, use the all-encompassing ‘we’, they mean the ordinary slobs who populate their nations.

They, their children and their ruling class won’t be in Syria, any more than they were in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, or any other war zones from which they and their corporate pals made huge profits.

In Ireland we are not immune to this call to arms. Our glorious leadership is sending 120 of our soldiers to dodge both Arab and Israeli bullets in one of the world’s hottest fire zones, the Golan Heights.

Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore, and their cosseted pals, with appropriately serious faces and wearing expensive suits, will attend the funerals of our soldiers, safe in the knowledge that they can retreat to an exclusive hotel or golf club afterwards, to receive the platitudes and praises of the usual movers and shakers and glitterati, and safe in the knowledge that none of their children will ever be out there.

Have the UN settled the bills owed to Ireland for the last few missions on which our soldiers were sent?

In a remarkably similarly circumstance to the Colin Powell outburst in the UN headquarters a decade ago, with nothing being proven regarding the perpetrators of the chemical attack in Damascus, the good and great can’t wait to launch their Tomahawks and F-16s into Syria.

Maybe I am just getting old and cynical, but haven’t we done all this before?

Tom Mangan

Ennis

Co Clare